Unlocking the mysterious movements of the banded stilt

Unlike seasonal migratory birds, the Banded Stilt will arrive at an inland salt lake when it senses the rain has been through. By tracking 20 of the birds with satellite transmitters, Reece Pedler aims to find out more about how the Banded Stilt knows when and where to visit.

Deakin University PhD student Reece Pedler has been tracking the birds to find out more about their movements.

The research has revealed that Bandid Stilts are among the fastest nomadic birds in the world.

"For a long time their movements have been this great mystery," he told Kirstyn March on ABC Goldfields-Esperance.

"In the early 1900s in Australia no-one had ever seen a Banded Stilt egg or nest, despite nearly all the eggs and nest of other birds being well known.

"It was in 1930 that the first ever nest was found at Lake Grace in the Goldfields and it became apparent that the reason no-one had ever found any was because they were nesting in these really remote places after rain."

To carry out the research, tiny five gram solar-powered satellite trackers were attached to the birds.

"It's a challenge catching the birds. I get as close to them as I can on a boogie board in the water, all camouflaged, and I fire a little net launcher over them and catch them in a net.

"It is a fairly undignified task I might add," says Mr Pedler.

About 20 birds were tagged for the research, some at a wetland near the South Australian coast and others at Lake Eyre.

The Lake Eyre birds covered large distances very quickly.

"We had several birds that moved 700km to 800km in overnight flights from Lake Eyre and back to the coast.

"Perhaps the most exciting was two birds that flew an incredible distance from Lake Eyre across to the Goldfields. One of them did about 2,300km in about two and a half days.

"We knew that these birds must be able to move fast and cover big distances but this sort of movement really surprised us," says Mr Pedler.

He says the research was important for estimating the population sizes of the Banded Stilt across Western Australia and particularly South Australia, where the species is threatened.

"This (research) shows the birds in SA may be able to breed on Goldfields salt lakes.

"It's also of much greater general interest.

"Just looking at the strategies water birds use to find these short-lived opportunities in the desert ... and indeed our tracking of these birds shows that their movements are right up there with some of the fastest movements of nomadic birds in the world."

Mr Pedler's research has garnered international interest and has been covered in the New York Times and the Smithsonian Magazine.